Gadgets: Now and Upcoming For Q4 ’09

With Q4 I mean the holidays approaching fast, the companies are going in to overdrive to catch the gift-giving rush in time. After all, in the current market situation, it is more important than ever before (except the 90s) to catch your customers as they switch to ‘spend’ mode.

We saw Apple release updated versions of the favorite Apple gift items – the iPods. Now we have Zune HD releasing in a just a few more hours. Microsoft has gone ahead and killed off the every other Zune in order to make room for the Zune HD. Had they done it sooner, they would’ve saved the expense of stocking products people don’t know about. Better late than never I suppose.

So do you have a Zune HD yet? You don’t? Well if you are holding out for the iPod Touch to get a camera, I would understand. But if you really want a Zune, it is out right now. No, really. Dell has already started offering the new Zunes at a 15% discount. Not only that, some people have actually been able to buy them ahead of the launch date, thanks to local tech stores. If you are pining away for a Zune HD and have not pre-ordered one already, you can follow what Logic Buy is saying and get to the Dell website for a great deal on the device. [via Engadget]

In other items that are being launched in time for the holiday season, we have the TomTom XXL Line devices living up to the name by getting engorged. Whilst you think why I used that word, you can feast your eyes on 5 inches of display real estate on the new TomTom  XXL 5305 and 5405. The difference between the two is the price, which in turn is decided by the fact that the 5405 has lane-specific guidance (as seen above), seven million points of interest, Bender-friendly Mexico maps and better looks.

With the exception of their extra large screen, there isn’t much to distinguish these devices from the earlier XXLs. The new devices will both have the current TomTom UI, US and Canadian Maps, preloaded emergency points like hospitals and the ability to correct street names in the database. All those features have nothing on OSM (OpenStreetMap.org) though. Those maps are created by locals and have data that you would not get from commercial maps.

The devices will be available in October and the prices will be $280 for the 5305 and $300 for the 5405.

Another something (hopefully) releasing this October is the touchscreen equipped keyboard from Asus. Mostly a normal keyboard, this nifty little device also contains…an entire Eee PC inside it! Yes, it is basically meant for computing where space crunch is just understating the situation. Or for computer geeks like me who want to try it out just for the sake of trying out a new form factor. I wonder if this device, aptly called the Eee Keyboard, will inspire an entire range of netkeyboards from Asus and others.

Asus has finally decided that this device will be launched this October. Possibly because the bosses do not want to miss out on the Christmas spending spirit just like the other companies. No words on the price yet but the estimation is that it will stay within the netbook territory, which means in between $300-400.

It has all the things a netbook has, like display out (HDMI), WiFi (802.11b/g/n) and even Bluetooth. Soon we might see people typing on what looks like only a keyboard with nothing attached to it. But I guess it cannot get any weirder after people started using barely visible Bluetooth headsets.